My computer network has changed in my apartment and as a result I now spend less time on this machine and more time on "Bertha", my beloved media centre. It is a very poor excuse for not having updated the blog in six months and I have let it lapse to the extent that I am now receiving e-mails and letters enquiring about my health and/or continued existence here in China. So, to all concerned, and those who have just forgotten to blacklist me yet, I'm still alive – Merry Christmas!
Life here is much the same, which I could engineer into another feeble excuse for not keeping in touch as there is no news to tell, but I won't... on this occasion. There's a new girl in tow, who I met during the Chinese National Day holiday, but she lives about nine hours away. She has already made the journey to see me four times and I am planning to head over to Henan province to see her for Chinese New Year. She is young, intelligent and gorgeous (just like me) and perhaps after the Chinese New Year trip there will be something of more interest to blog about.
Best wishes to all for a very merry festive season. I am picturing some of the proper English turkey roasts that you will be enjoying and hope that they will be as mouthwatering to your taste buds as they are in my mind.
Just a short one today and if I made New Year resolutions, mine would be to update the blog more regularly... but I don't. So, I will speak to you on the blog the next time that I feel guilty or, for the technically capable among you, the next time that I catch you on Skype (ben_lefroy).
Best wishes to you, all and one.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Poor excuse for a blogger...
It appears that my last blog update was on the 6th of March and so I have been rather neglectful in my communication duties towards family and friends – for this I apologise profusely, although the reality is that there really isn't anything to tell.
The weather is starting to pick up for the summer and I have already managed to have one beach outing with my students. Sandcastles and ice-creams by the sea is a far superior option to book exercises, sat in the classroom, but it does involve some serious homework marking at a later date, as the aforementioned students are all tasked with writing about any out-of-class activities post-excursion.
I do not keep a very close eye on news from the West because it no longer affects me greatly, and most of the time it consists of people whining about one thing or another, but at last glance it seems that the UK is planning to go on strike.
Why is it that people who work for state institutions expect to automatically be paid for years and years after they cease doing any work? The argument appears to be over pensions and the requirement for people who have not made any personal arrangements for their retirement to put in a little bit of extra effort before reaping the rewards offered by the state.
Given that the UK is still struggling to escape the huge financial burden gifted to it by so many consequetive months of 'financial growth' since Blair, Brown et al. I do not think that it is unreasonable for the government to expect a little help from those who benefit the most from the freebies long after they have hung up their plimsolls and mortar boards.
For those who are not happy with the situation back home (and I still consider it to be my home) I recommend a move overseas. Whilst we happily criticise communist regimes and the corruption in foreign countries, there is a lot to commend much of the thinking behind the red flags.
Citizens here in China love their government, despite the censorship and the poor human rights history. The love is not universal but it far outweighs the feeling towards the powers that be in the UK. And long may it continue.
If the strikers understood that the government is trying to correct the debt issues and the financial problems that the country faces, then perhaps they would not be behaving like spoilt children with too many teddies to throw. And maybe their time on strike would be better spent addressing their own plans for pension income once they cease to contribute anything worthwhile to society (assuming they are doing anything worthwhile at present), rather than just creating a further burden to a troubled country.
But this is just a blog, read by family and friends, and not the place for political whining. So, forgive me my rant, many thanks to those of you who have contributed so generously to my student stamp collection campaign and I will try not to leave the next update for so long.
The weather is starting to pick up for the summer and I have already managed to have one beach outing with my students. Sandcastles and ice-creams by the sea is a far superior option to book exercises, sat in the classroom, but it does involve some serious homework marking at a later date, as the aforementioned students are all tasked with writing about any out-of-class activities post-excursion.
I do not keep a very close eye on news from the West because it no longer affects me greatly, and most of the time it consists of people whining about one thing or another, but at last glance it seems that the UK is planning to go on strike.
Why is it that people who work for state institutions expect to automatically be paid for years and years after they cease doing any work? The argument appears to be over pensions and the requirement for people who have not made any personal arrangements for their retirement to put in a little bit of extra effort before reaping the rewards offered by the state.
Given that the UK is still struggling to escape the huge financial burden gifted to it by so many consequetive months of 'financial growth' since Blair, Brown et al. I do not think that it is unreasonable for the government to expect a little help from those who benefit the most from the freebies long after they have hung up their plimsolls and mortar boards.
For those who are not happy with the situation back home (and I still consider it to be my home) I recommend a move overseas. Whilst we happily criticise communist regimes and the corruption in foreign countries, there is a lot to commend much of the thinking behind the red flags.
Citizens here in China love their government, despite the censorship and the poor human rights history. The love is not universal but it far outweighs the feeling towards the powers that be in the UK. And long may it continue.
If the strikers understood that the government is trying to correct the debt issues and the financial problems that the country faces, then perhaps they would not be behaving like spoilt children with too many teddies to throw. And maybe their time on strike would be better spent addressing their own plans for pension income once they cease to contribute anything worthwhile to society (assuming they are doing anything worthwhile at present), rather than just creating a further burden to a troubled country.
But this is just a blog, read by family and friends, and not the place for political whining. So, forgive me my rant, many thanks to those of you who have contributed so generously to my student stamp collection campaign and I will try not to leave the next update for so long.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Six months...
It really has been six months since my last blog entry – although with two or three months of time spent researching Chinese hospitals, Christmas, New Year, Chinese New Year and my own birthday having been squeezed into those months it doesn't seem like half a year at all.
The bitterly cold weather looks to be easing up a little and Rizhao has enjoyed some relatively mild days of late. The heavy snow which affected large parts of China this winter only paid a flying visit to the coastal area of Shandong and it is unlikely to return as we head into March, April and beyond.
My employer has asked me to extend my contract, by two months to September 2011, for reasons unknown to me. I am more than happy to do so but I was already planning to sign a new contract from July for a further 12 months. One can only assume that he wants his staff requirement for the summer courses covered well in advance but it does generate an unnecessary amount of paperwork regarding visa, flight allowance, pay increase etc. Upon reflection, it does mean that any future six- or 12-month contracts that I sign after that date will always come to an end on the other side of the very busy winter and summer courses – ie. he will not be left in the lurch, at least not by me. Perhaps it's not such a ridiculous idea after all.
I have been looking everywhere for a way to get a prepaid Visa or Mastercard here in China. I thought that I had found a way around the problem via Western Union's prepaid card but it turns out that you cannot simply add funds at any Western Union branch anywhere in the world, which I am sure would not be difficult for them to implement into a straightforward, risk-free product. No, it is designed for UK residents and can be magically topped up in numerous places all over the UK, but in China it is just a pretty piece of plastic.
China does have a card processing network, called Unionpay, and has been slowly building global relationships to enable the use of these cards overseas and online. Unionpay is supposedly supported by PayPal, but I ditched PayPal over a year ago because of its failure to comprehend such an animal as an expat, trying to use an account in a foreign country, and requesting verification for every purchase it thought might be fraudulent. I attempted setting up a China PayPal account a couple of days ago but when I tried to process a Unionpay payment it just failed. I will notify the world of any developments.
If you Google the subject of credit cards for expats in China, you will notice that there are more than a few potential customers for a prepaid card. In fact, one was launched by Bank of China during the Olympic Games, in Beijing, to ease the financial transaction difficulties for foreigners trying to survive in the clutches of the nation's restrictions. And as soon as the games finished, the card was buried, putting a stop to all those RMB escaping in the direction of a non state-controlled entity.
I fear that banking restrictions are here to stay for a few more years on the development ladder before they are removed in favour of competition, convenience and choice.
Still, I have found a proxy which enables me to use Blogger without the need for a credit card, for the time being (Blogger being one of the many government-censored sites), and will try not to leave it quite so long until the next update.
Warmest of regards and thanks for the continued letters, cards, e-mails, messages, tweets etc.
The bitterly cold weather looks to be easing up a little and Rizhao has enjoyed some relatively mild days of late. The heavy snow which affected large parts of China this winter only paid a flying visit to the coastal area of Shandong and it is unlikely to return as we head into March, April and beyond.
My employer has asked me to extend my contract, by two months to September 2011, for reasons unknown to me. I am more than happy to do so but I was already planning to sign a new contract from July for a further 12 months. One can only assume that he wants his staff requirement for the summer courses covered well in advance but it does generate an unnecessary amount of paperwork regarding visa, flight allowance, pay increase etc. Upon reflection, it does mean that any future six- or 12-month contracts that I sign after that date will always come to an end on the other side of the very busy winter and summer courses – ie. he will not be left in the lurch, at least not by me. Perhaps it's not such a ridiculous idea after all.
I have been looking everywhere for a way to get a prepaid Visa or Mastercard here in China. I thought that I had found a way around the problem via Western Union's prepaid card but it turns out that you cannot simply add funds at any Western Union branch anywhere in the world, which I am sure would not be difficult for them to implement into a straightforward, risk-free product. No, it is designed for UK residents and can be magically topped up in numerous places all over the UK, but in China it is just a pretty piece of plastic.
China does have a card processing network, called Unionpay, and has been slowly building global relationships to enable the use of these cards overseas and online. Unionpay is supposedly supported by PayPal, but I ditched PayPal over a year ago because of its failure to comprehend such an animal as an expat, trying to use an account in a foreign country, and requesting verification for every purchase it thought might be fraudulent. I attempted setting up a China PayPal account a couple of days ago but when I tried to process a Unionpay payment it just failed. I will notify the world of any developments.
If you Google the subject of credit cards for expats in China, you will notice that there are more than a few potential customers for a prepaid card. In fact, one was launched by Bank of China during the Olympic Games, in Beijing, to ease the financial transaction difficulties for foreigners trying to survive in the clutches of the nation's restrictions. And as soon as the games finished, the card was buried, putting a stop to all those RMB escaping in the direction of a non state-controlled entity.
I fear that banking restrictions are here to stay for a few more years on the development ladder before they are removed in favour of competition, convenience and choice.
Still, I have found a proxy which enables me to use Blogger without the need for a credit card, for the time being (Blogger being one of the many government-censored sites), and will try not to leave it quite so long until the next update.
Warmest of regards and thanks for the continued letters, cards, e-mails, messages, tweets etc.
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